1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel reforming apparatus and method for reforming a fuel air mixture of a fuel and air.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 4-058064 (1992) discloses an engine with a reforming catalyst. In this engine, the reforming catalyst is disposed upstream of a fuel injection valve within an intake pipe. Further, a fuel feeding valve, an ultrasonic atomizer (an ultrasonic oscillation member), an igniter and a flame extinguisher are disposed upstream of the reforming catalyst within the intake pipe. When the engine is started, a hydrocarbon fuel is fed from the fuel feeding valve to the ultrasonic sprayer and is atomized into micro droplets by the ultrasonic atomizer. The hydrocarbon fuel is ignited by the igniter and burns. Flames generated in the intake pipe are extinguished by the flame extinguisher. Then, a heated fuel air mixture is introduced into the reforming catalyst in which a fuel component to be sucked into a combustion chamber is obtained by a predetermined reforming reaction.
However, even if the fuel air mixture is formed by atomizing the hydrocarbon fuel into micro-droplets as described above, it is difficult to uniformly mix the fuel and air. If a nonuniform fuel air mixture is fed to the reforming catalyst, an amount of non-reformed fuel (non-reformed HC) increases. The non-reformed fuel is fed to the combustion chamber while not reformed by the reforming catalyst increases. If the amount of the non-reformed fuel fed to the combustion chamber increases in such a manner, it is difficult to reduce an exhaust emission.